06 - Backrubs and Bed Talk

//--GM
When Daniel looks up, he sees Mandy's fine caboose disappearing into what the ladies call the 'Purse Room' - the largish coat nook in back with lockers for their stuff while they're on the floor. She's coat-in-hand when he catches up, leaning on the door frame of the employee exit, smiling, but looking a little spent. Kaylee and Sally file past her, heading for the Dorm, both with knowing looks on their faces as they tell her good-night. Nikki is seeing the boys out, and the other girls left a little while ago.

//--Daniel
Daniel's pupils are probably a little wide, his face still flushed, not come down from the music yet. He smiles as he catches up to her, takes her coat and leans in beside her to slip an arm around her waist. He kisses the side of her jaw and speaks warm against her neck. "You look like a lady who could use that back rub," he says.

//--Mandy
"I might be up past my bedtime, but you look like you're just warming up." Mandy purrs at your kiss, leaning into your gentle hold. "My toes were tingling when you looked my way from the stage." His touch is inspiring a second wind in her, but Daniel may have to balance his excitement against what spirit she has left.

//--Daniel
"I'm sorry it's so late." He looks a little longingly at the bench in the changing room. "But, I should get you home. Uh, let me put the bass away; I'll meet you at the door." Daniel extracts himself from her. He walks off adjusting his jeans and shaking his head.

//--Mandy
"It was worth it to see you like this. Don't worry about me." As Daniel walks away, out of the corner of his eye he catches Mandy looking at the narrow bench with one hand on her belly, as if she was trying to figure out the logistics.

//--Daniel
Daniel dashes the bass upstairs and back, two steps at a time, and dashes back to Mandy's elbow before she has to wait long. "Your coat, Lady Blue." He helps her put it on, opens the door for her, and locks up behind them.

//--Mandy
Once the door is shut and they're walking, Mandy snuggles close again, even though it's not particularly cool out tonight. "The next time you play, I promise I'll be rested for after," she says, completely omitting any implied responsibility Daniel might have for her fatigue.

//--Daniel
"Mm, I promise to let you."

//--GM
[Is there any perceptible disappointment in Daniel's demeanor at the delay?]

//--Simone
[Perhaps, but it is wry, and self-deprecating. He well knows (though hadn't quite remembered) where the music takes him when he has a focus.]

//--GM
He can feel Mandy contemplating what she might do to make it up to him; playfully rather than regretfully, but the impulse is still there.

//--Daniel
Daniel thinks about mentioning it, but decides it's just as well to let it lie.

//--Mandy
"Maybe I can even steal a private concert from my maestro some afternoon when I don't have to work...." Daniel knows Mandy's on the schedule for tomorrow - Saturday night, busiest club time, partnered with Sally for the rush. But hey, Sunday off....

//--Daniel
"We have all the time in the world to figure out when."

//--Mandy
Her expression betrays a hint of surprise at such a long-term bit of thinking, but she does nothing to dissuade Daniel from the thought.

//--Daniel
When they get up to Mandy's door, Daniel solemnly pulls a toothbrush out of his jacket pocket. "So, if I stay tonight, it's okay." He looks at her all blinky and innocent.

//--Mandy
Giggling, "I can make space in my toothbrush holder...."

//--Daniel
"I feel all domesticated. Toothbrush holder, indeed." Daniel helps Mandy through the door with her bag and coat, hanging it carefully. "So, now that you've invited me up, do you mind if I stay?"

//--Mandy
She takes her little makeup clutch out of her purse as you're hanging it up, leaning in to kiss you, and whispers, "After that clutch behind the bar, you have to ask?" Then, very tenderly, "Please stay, Daniel."

//--Daniel
He smiles broadly. "I am so glad you asked." He leans her back (gently!) against the wall, and pins her there with a long kiss, from which he breaks away a little wolfishly. "Mm. Yes. Well. Go and get ready for bed, sleepy lady. I owe you a backrub." He lets her go, undressing while she's in the bathroom and trading places with her when she comes out. When he climbs into bed with her he does indeed manage to lie behind her and give her that massage without going any farther than wanting her.

//--GM
The kiss leaves her breathless, silently arguing with herself about casting sleep aside to beg for more until a yawn bubbles up to talk her out of it. Mandy takes a while in the bathroom, but comes out scrubbed and neat, her hair loosely braided, wearing comfy underclothes and some over-sized t-shirt scrawled with tour dates and a band logo. When Danile joins her, she fights sleep for a while longer, but eventually relents to the pressure of her exhaustion and Daniel's kind hands.

//--Daniel
When her breath evens into sleep, Daniel encamps in the rocking chair, his feet up on the low, broad windowsill. He puts his head back, eyes closed, thinking through music arrangements in his head.

//--GM
The long denied musical impulse runs fairly wild in his mind; it'll take time to see what will actually translate into something he can reproduce.

//--Daniel
Right now he's just "letting be be," giving it enough juice to let the music grow back, but not so much as to push it.

Many hours later he slides quietly back into bed with her and falls asleep with one arm over her.

//--GM
He awakens to the smell of breakfast.

//--Daniel
She did it again, slipping out without him noticing.

//--GM
Hmmm.... comfortable or disturbing?

//--Daniel
Both. For now while he feels relatively secure, mostly comfortable. But there is already Duncan's "travelling blackout," and Caine's surveillance... this place is by no means secret.

//--Mandy
It may be afternoon, but the only light is what sneaks under the blackout curtains. Mandy whispers, "Would my patient prince prefer breakfast, or dessert first?" Despite the poor light, Daniel can make out that she's wearing a very short blue waitress skirt, white pom-pom socks, and two lengths of blue ribbon: one in a neat bow around her neck, and the other just barely containing the broadest swell of her chest. "Hungry?"

//--Daniel
Daniel yawns and stretches, then levers himself up onto his elbows. He looks Mandy up and down, restraining a laugh. "I'm pretty eager to see you serve breakfast in that." He replies. "Perhaps breakfast with desert on the side."

//--Mandy
Mandy is fighting the urge to laugh herself. "Are you a betting man, Mr. Howethorne?"

//--Daniel
He raises an eyebrow, stretches over the edge of the bed to fish a ten out of his jeans, gives it a crisp snap, and sets it on the headboard.

//--Mandy
She proceeds to serve all the breakfast things Daniel showed a preference for the previous afternoon, occasionally displaying her lack of underwear, but somehow never letting the ribbon slip.

//--Daniel
He makes her freeze and hold a pose while he darts out to the bathroom. He returns fresh-faced, plumps up the pillows, and lays back down with his hands behind his head to watch. "Okay, carry on."

//--Mandy
"I've been thinking about dressing up for you somehow, and this was the best I could do with what I had on hand." She does a little turning curtsy. "Fun?" She certainly seems to be enjoying herself so far, even before Daniel makes a move for dessert.

//--Daniel
Daniel considers while washing down a mouthful of pancakes with a sip of coffee. Suddenly, he says, "Hey, wait a minute. You're cheating! There's gotta be syrup under there or something. C'mere." When she gets close he puts the tip of one finger very gently under the edge of the ribbon so as not to knock it down, and slides it all the way around her.

//--Mandy
She has to steady herself with a hand on your shoulder at one point - well, two points - of your test, nibbling her bottom lip as her eyelids flutter a bit.

//--Daniel
Daniel's other hand steadies her when she sways.

//--Mandy
Her eyes meet his, silently reassuring him that she's all right - just riding the moment.

//--Daniel
Finally he shakes his head and says, in mock puzzlement, "Okay. No syrup. You win. I don't know how you did it." He picks the ten up off the headboard and hands it to her solemnly. "Never bet against a woman. I tell Duncan that all the time."

//--Mandy
Recovered now, she tucks the bill into a hidden pocket at the hip of the skirt before mock-solemnly nodding her agreement. "Good advice. The shifty ones will rig the contest, and honest ones like me only bet what they aren't likely to lose." She takes the ends of the ribbon each between finger and thumb and begins tugging the bow over her chest undone. "There is a consolation prize, though."

//--Daniel
"I hope you don't mind if I lose on purpose, if this is the consolation prize." He pushes his breakfast plates onto the little side table without taking his eyes off her. "As you can see, I'm ready for whatever consolation you have in mind."

//--Mandy
The ribbon falls, at hand but out of the way. "You'll never have to throw a contest for me, lover. You've already won." The skirt isn't long enough to get in the way as she slides into Daniel's lap....

//--Daniel
[Daniel certainly intends to take it easy with Mandy this morning, and use his strength to ease the difficulty or strain of anything she wants to try.]

//--Mandy
Mandy takes the lead, working hard to please him, but she's not looking to try anything crazy. She isn't ignoring her own needs, but Daniel does get the feeling she's trying to make up for last night in some fashion.

//--Daniel
As any small disappointment in that delay was already overwhelmed by the complete package of the incredible day, and his urgency this morning is very here-and-now, inspired by Mandy's attitude, she should not feel he is lacking anything at all from about the moment she starts.

//--Mandy
It takes a few moments of watching Daniel's eyes to get the message, but he does at last feel that tension leave her. Her first dose of Vitamin O leaves her laughing, and the rest of the hour or two they have together (assuming Daniel doesn't want to delay his little errand for Duncan, anyway) echoes their first (good) night fairly closely. What sort of finish is Daniel going for?

//--Daniel
After a fairly deep and urgent first round, Daniel takes the rest of the morning slow, very relaxed and easy, with no particular striving except to feel very present in the moment, and touch every part of this woman completely. He is putting to rest that strange sense that he had sex with her -- in fact, conceived a child with her -- and doesn't even remember doing it.

//--Mandy
They have a wonderful few hours, and then, during the cuddling phase, Daniel realizes that it's after noon, or, more properly, mid-afternoon. Mandy had a noon breakfast delivered, and her clock wasn't visible from the bed.

//--Daniel
Daniel stretches, a little disappointed to have realized the time.

//--Mandy
Mandy kisses him before they completely disentangle. "We have all the time in the world, remember?"

//--Daniel
He laughs. "We do have all the time in the world. Just not in one big chunk."

//--Mandy
Laughing along, "As sweet as you are, it's probably healthier that way."

//--Daniel
After today I think that feeling will be completely gone.

//--Mandy
Mandy seems to have put a few things to rest as well. She offers to warm up the shower while Daniel throws his clothes together, and points to the phone on the charger if he wants to call Duncan.

//--Daniel
Daniel takes her up on both offers, giving Duncan a quick ring before joining Mandy in the shower.

//--Duncan
Duncan says he'll break out the flashlights.

//--Daniel
"Ha ha."

//--Duncan
"Whenever you can get here, old friend...." You hear tools clattering as Duncan is putting kits together, and he lets the conversation drop at that point, chuckling.

//--Daniel
They head there as soon as possible and find Duncan himself.

//--Mandy
Mandy isn't due for several hours. "I might see about hitting the store," she muses, her eyes twinkling with happy thoughts. "Do you want to make plans for Sunday?"

//--Daniel
"Given I don't know exactly what Duncan's sending me out on, I'm not a hundred percent sure I'll be here Sunday. Can you take that as a 'yes, if I'm available?'"

//--Mandy
"Sure." Mandy gives you her phone number. "If I don't hear from you by Sunday noon, I'll go to the library and hang out. It's a big place, but I trust you can find me." Burying any melancholy that might be rising, "I'm sure Duncan will let us know if he's taking you away for longer than that."

//--Daniel
Daniel smiles and speaks as he finishes dressing. "Yeah, if he knows, he'll certainly let you know, I'm sure." He takes her number, puts it in his pocket. "I should get a cell. I'll borrow one and leave the number for you at the club."

//--Mandy
"Can I try to Trump you after my shift... just for practice while you're close by?"

//--Daniel
"Of course, if I'm still away then."

After a few lingering kisses, Daniel finally takes his leave and makes his way back to Duncan's.